The transfer of materials through interfaces in fluid media is called mass transfer. Mass transfer phenomena are observed throughout Nature and in many fields of

industry. Today, fields of application of mass transfer theories have become widespread, from traditional chemical industries to bioscience and environmental industries. The design of new processes, the optimization of existing processes, and solving pollution problems are all heavily dependent on a knowledge of mass transfer.

This book is intended as a textbook on mass transfer for graduate students and for practicing chemical engineers, as well as for academic persons working in the field of mass transfer and related areas. The topics of the book are arranged so as to start from fundamental aspects of the phenomena and then systematically and in a step-by-step way proceed to detailed applications, with due consideration of real separation problems. Important formulae and correlations are clearly described, together with their basic assumptions and the limitations of the theories in practical applications. Comparisons of the theories with numerical solutions or observed data are also provided as far as possible. Each chapter contains some illustrative examples to help readers to understand how to approach actual practical problems.

The book consists of ten chapters. The first three chapters cover the fundamental aspects of mass transfer. The next four chapters deal with laminar mass transfer of various types. The fundamentals of turbulent transport phenomena and mass transfer with phase change are then discussed in two further chapters. The final chapter is a highlight of the book, wherein fundamental principles developed in the previous chapters are applied to real industrial separation processes, and a new model for the design of multi-component distillations on packed columns is proposed, application of which has facilitated the industrial separation of a stable isotope, oxygen-18, by super cryogenic distillation.